Robert D. Marx

Modeling influences on the eating behavior of successful and unsuccessful dieters and untreated normal weight individuals

Abstract Behavioral weight reduction programs teach participants to reduce eating rate in order to reduce food intake. But little is known about factors which influence rate of eating. This study examined influences of “appropriate” and “inappropriate” eating models on the eating behavior of dieters and non-dieting normal weight individuals. Dieters who had lost 12 or more pounds in a recent behavioral weight reduction program (“successful” dieters), dieters who had lost 9 or fewer pounds in the program (“unsuccessful” dieters), and non-dieting normal weight individuals were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups. These were “appropriate”, in which a model ate 5 crackers in 7 min, “inappropriate”, in which she ate 20 crackers in 7 min, and a no-model condition. Subjects participated in a “taste discrimination task” during which they tasted and rated 3 types of crackers on a series of dimensions. Subjects who ate with an appropriate model, or with no model, ate fewer crackers than subjects who ate with an inappropriate model. Subjects in both dieter groups ate fewer crackers than non-dieting normal weight subjects.

Toward optimal use of video in management education: examining the evidence

Video has emerged as a widely used teaching tool among management educators in academic and corporate settings. This paper reviews research in comparative media and management education to identify how video can be used with traditional written material for optimal educational outcomes. Implications for research and practice are examined.

The Virtuous Organization: Insights from Some of the World's Leading Management Thinkers

This book focuses on a new and emerging, yet as old as recorded history, organizational concern: virtue. Virtue has recently become a topic of serious examination among organizational researchers and progressive companies who are exploring their role in creating new, more holistic, healthy, and humane work environments. With interdisciplinary insights by many of the world’s leading management thinkers, the book includes conceptual treatments, empirical research, and actual cases concerning virtuous behavior and leadership under conditions of crises, and ordinary and exemplary times. Until recently, scholarly research paid scant attention to virtue, especially in organizations. The pursuit of virtue, as opposed to the bottom line, remained outside the acceptable domain of practising managers faced with economic pressures and stakeholder demands. Concepts such as efficiency, return on investment (ROI), and competitive advantage were emphasized over more virtuous concerns such as caring, compassion, integrity and wisdom. The Virtuous Organization fills this void by presenting paradigm-shifting insights of leading scholars that have the potential to change the face of management thinking and practice for both this and future generations.

Differences in eating patterns of successful and unsuccessful dieters, untreated overweight and normal weight individuals

Abstract Behavioral treatments of obesity appear to make two assumptions. First, obese and non-obese individuals may differ in specific eating behaviors or “eating styles”. Second, successful treatment may change the obese individuals eating style to resemble that of the non-obese. These assumptions were examined by comparing eating behaviors of successfully and unsuccessfully treated overweight individuals, untreated overweight individuals, and normal weight individuals. Subject were female college students and staff who ate a standardized meal in a laboratory setting. The behaviors measured were meal duration, number of bites, sips and chews, and the number of times utensils were placed down between mouthfuls. Results did not support either assumption. Obese and non-obese subjects did not differ in eating styles. Instead, treated subjects differed from untreated subjects. Treated subjects ate longer and placed utensils down more frequently than did untreated subjects. Therefore the behavioral treatment program used in this study did appear to change eating behaviors, but these changes were not associated with success or failure in weight loss efforts.

Values and Virtues in Organizations: An Introduction

This special issue focuses on virtues in organizations, even though the concept of virtues is more at home in philosophy, religion, and social services than in the for-profit world of business. Much attention has been paid to values in organizations, of course, but the definition and roles played by virtues in organizations differs substantially from values. We briefly discuss the concept of values in organizations and differentiate it from the concept of virtues with which it is sometimes confused. This will serve as a backdrop to the contributions made by the articles in this special issue.

The Language of Virtues: Toward an inclusive Approach for Integrating Spirituality in Management Education

There is an increasing recognition that spirituality is an important variable in organizational life, and in the study and practice of management. As a result, a growing number of management educators are incorporating discussions of spirituality in the workplace into their classrooms. Because of the newness of this field and the lack of experience with teaching about this topic, it is important to pay attention to issues of language when speaking about spirituality in the workplace. The first key issue that management educators will face is what language to use that will be effective and inclusive. In this paper we will address the issue of a working definition of spirituality for the academic or training classroom and how the management educator can create a bridge from the personal to public language for the group learning process. We shall introduce the concept of virtues (transcendent values such as compassion, courage and integrity) as an inclusive language that can integrate the private languages of individual spiritual traditions into expressions of positive organizational practices. This includes a simple model for extracting a public language and learning exercises we have found useful. In addition, the implications of inclusive language will be considered in relation to the need for an expanded learning paradigm.

Isn’t It Time We Did Something About the Lack of Teaching Preparation in Business Doctoral Programs?:

In this essay, we explore why there has traditionally been so little emphasis on teaching preparation in business doctoral programs. Program administrators and faculty typically espouse support for teaching development; yet the existing reward systems are powerfully aligned in favor of a focus on research competency. Indeed, through the lens of a performance diagnostic model, it is entirely predictable that doctoral programs have not offered more teaching development opportunities, as administrators often do not have the requisite motivation, ability, opportunity, or resources to develop comparable teaching competence. However, given that the average graduate will take a professorial position with greater than 50% of responsibilities devoted to teaching, most external observers would conclude that there is a curious dearth of teaching preparation in contemporary business doctoral programs. However understandable the dearth of teaching development, we argue that those reasons are no longer acceptable, and the present essay is predominately a call for change. Suggestions for enhancing the depth and nature of teaching development are offered, and we include some examples of progressive initiatives underway in the hopes of provoking a more intense conversation on the teaching preparation of the next generation of business professors.

Communication skills programs that last: Face to Face and relapse prevention

Communication skills are basic to effective management. However, communication training programs must not only show evidence that the skills have been learned, but also demonstrate that this learning can be converted into effective on the job behavior. A communication skills program, Face to Face, based on the microtraining model, is described. This model has substantial empirical evidence of successful skill acquisition. A novel approach to skill transfer and retention, the relapse prevention model is proposed as a methodology for maintaining communication skills in the work setting.

Teaching about Spirituality and Work: Experiential Exercises for Management Educators

Spirituality and work have been increasingly linked together by management educators and researchers as a promising approach to workplace improvement. In recent years, the burgeoning number of conferences, books, and scholarly articles on this topic has begun to establish spirituality and work as a mainstream topic in the management classroom. From early writings,1,2,3,4 which introduced the spiritual side of work to management educators, to more recent works that have attempted to establish meaningful definitions and models of spirituality at work,5,6,7,8 the interest and enthusiasm for applying spiritual values to affect solutions to business problems and to enhance quality of life for organization members continue to grow.

In Search of Excellence: How To Use a Bestseller in the Ob Classroom

When I recently assigned a current business best-seller to my MBA class in organizational behavior, I was surprised by their enthusiastic approval. I had not noticed the same strong support for the required textbook and a score of scholarly journal articles. Subsequent feedback revealed that several of the students had either already read it, had planned to read it soon, or had seen it on their bosses’ desks and thought they had better read it. I was concerned that this nearly unanimous enthusiasm for an assigned reading was an indication of a problem. The book’s popularity alone made it a suspicious assignment for a serious academic course. If such a book appealed to millions of readers, it must have been too easy, too short, or too general to assist the managers of the future in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. There was also the respect of my colleagues to consider. A book that was written in a lively, readable style might not be respected by colleagues who endorsed a &dquo;no pain-no gain&dquo; philosophy of education. How then could I assign business best-sellers that students were highly motivated to read without compromising the integrity of my course, our department, the university, or even our discipline?